“We heard the announcement about the messaging campaign. You know it's kind of hard to start a message campaign two months into something, and shift, so we missed the boat on that one,” said Rep. Sykes.

So far, only 10 percent of black Ohioans have been tested, yet they make up 27 percent of the state’s COVID-19 cases.

Credit: WKYC

“We have little idea of who are the people infected and who are the people we need to isolate, so we don’t see the community spread. And, we can’t get that information until we do more testing. I’m hoping that [testing] ramps up the way we were told. Apparently the capacity is there but it’s not getting to the people,” said Rep. Sykes.“People are literally dying because these health disparities continue to exist.”

So why do health disparities exist?

“Unless we can afford it, we don’t get the same medical care as whites get,” said Kevin Harris, of Trumbull County.

“Whether it’s our diet or the fact that we like to congregate together and be with family more so, we tend to get each other sicker,” said Harris. “There are three things that we deal with: logistics, economy and medical care.”

Racial disparities won’t change overnight.

But Harris says they can improve if we continue having the conversation.

“We’re all in this boat together; black, white, and brown. We just got to put the information out there and hope people listen, said Harris.